ONE Championship comes under fire, criticized for dismal fighter pay in leaked contract
A leaked ONE Championship contract for a bout agreement has caused anger within the MMA community due.
Since being founded in 2011, One has carved out a decent piece of the pie in terms of the MMA space. They have developed their own stars, attracted big names to sign with them and have built a solid fanbase, particularly in Asia. They also appeal to fans of the more traditional martial arts, putting fights on across different disciplines including Brazilian-jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and kickboxing.
However, while they have seemed like a good force in the space and could present themselves as competition for the UFC, a recent contract leak does not paint ONE Championship in a good light.
The contract was for strawweight mixed-martial artist Anelya Toktogonova, who would be making her promotional debut against Aleksandra Sacicheva under the ONE Championship banner. The contract reveals she would be paid just $1300/$1300, meaning she would recent just thirteen-hundred to show and the same amount if she won.
While the UFC have come under heavy fire over the years for the fighter pay, the minimum contracts have been reported to be $12,000/$12,000.
While One brands itself as a more family friendly brand that is more true to the way of martial arts, this is just another example of the promotions recent actions that call into account their legitimacy. in august of last year, they would switch their business operations from Singapore to the Cayman Islands – a move that could be conclude to have been made due to the Islands having no income or withholding taxes.
One also recently sought after new investments and would receive several millions of dollars from Qatar Investment Authority. this investment authority is Qatar’s national sovereign wealth fund, which has invested billions into different sports in attempt to sport wash. The Qatar government has come under heavy scrutiny for their human rights violations and their treatment of LGBT community.
